Man gets coronavirus twice, second wave proved ‘more severe’

The coronavirus pandemic is increasing rapidly in the US. A man has contracted Covid-19 twice, with the second infection becoming more tragic than the first.

Doctors reported that the 25-year-old man required hospital treatment after his lungs could not get sufficient oxygen into his body. He tested positive for the second time and is hypoxic (low blood oxygen) with shortness of breath.

The man was not suffering from health problems or immune defects that would cause danger.

Scientists reported that the man contracted Covid-19 twice. They said that a comparison of the genetic codes of the virus collected during each bout of symptoms showed that they are different to be caused by the same infection.

Dr. Mark Pandori from the University of Nevada said, “Our findings signal that a previous infection may not necessarily protect against future infection,”

“The possibility of reinfections could have significant implications for our understanding of Covid-19 immunity.”

He urged people to follow social distancing measures even when they test negative for the virus.

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It has still not been found why the patient became seriously ill the second time. There are possibilities that he may have been exposed to a bigger initial dose of the virus. It is also probable that the second infection worsened because of the initial immune response.

Prof Paul Hunter, from the University of East Anglia, said the study was “very concerning” because of the small gap between the two infections, and the severity of the second.

“Given the fact that to date over 37 million people have had the infection, we would have expected to have heard of many more incidents if such very early reinfections with severe illness were common.

“It is too early to say for certain what the implications of these findings are for any immunization programme. But these findings reinforce the point that we still do not know enough about the immune response to this infection.”